In the past week, I learned about the documentary film Jiro Dreams of Sushi from an Angry Asian Man post and despite most stunning cinematography of the sushi-making, I nearly forgot about looking it up, assuming it was not accessible to me.
On Saturday morning, it occurred to me to look it up and my first local Google result showed that the TIFF Bell Lightbox was showing it several times during the day. The Lil Sis had heard our favourite morning radio show host, CBC Metro Morning’s Matt Galloway, rave about the film, claiming he went in after a meal and still came out hungry for sushi. I did not have to twist her arm to go and she hadn’t even watched the trailer.
So I bought tickets (er, in their lingo, “made a reservation”) for a 5:00 p.m. showing and it was good because we actually peeled ourselves off the couch and got out of the apartment compared to many a weekend day in all her visits so far. We zipped to a Canadian Tire and then another looking for patio furniture and picked up Don Juan (food truck on Front Street West) hot dog and poutine on our walking route to the Lightbox.
To me, the Lightbox is a “movie theatre” screening extra special/festival/foreign films with the additional bonus of special exhibits (like last year’s Grace Kelly one) and great gift shop currently stocked up with brilliantly coloured merchandise to celebrate the upcoming tiff.kids, TIFF Kids International Film Festival. The Lightbox is also the permanent home to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) headquarters.
It’s no wonder that our screening sold out as the theatre held just 80 seats but everyone was very enthusiastic and there was a friendly “film festival vibe” amongst the patrons. One of the promo trailers was for the currently running Spirited Away: The Films of Studio Ghibli. The following video is a montage of the fifteen animated films being screened at the Lightbox over six weeks and I was newly impressed by the beautiful and cohesive work the studio has produced. For starters, I need to finish watching Ponyo, and get onto My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, and Howl’s Moving Castle!
The Leaf’s last Saturday home game of the regular season (and their 2011/2012 season, period) began shortly after we got out of the theater and it was a decision to make whether to duck into a bar and catch the game or give into the small sushi craving Jiro Dreams of Sushi created. Since I told Lil Sis a few months ago that the ACC blares a fog horn whenever the Leafs score during a home game, she has been anxious to hear it for herself but they have been blanked in all Saturday home games the same weekend she decides to visit me downtown. Tonight was her last chance for the season.
Since we already had poutine and a hot dog, I decided that pub food was only more of the same and we went to Oyshi Sushi near my place which has high Urbanspoon ratings (88% of 108 raters). I experienced a little bit of sticker shock and was momentarily at a loss of what to order. I thought I might want 20 pieces like the three “movement” tasting menu that was in the final segment of the documentary but that was going to get steep when any nigiri was a whopping $2 or more. Although salmon was not mentioned at all in the film, the prized fish being tuna, it’s what I grew up on and I wanted to ensure I enjoyed my post-Jiro Dreams of Sushi sushi. I ordered the salmon sushi dome with 10 pieces of salmon draped over rice for $13. (NPY: “It’s called salmon don.” me: “No, I know salmon don, but it said sushi dome on the menu.” Because it looks like a dome.) After watching the film, I jokingly threatened to make my own salmon nigiri with the ingredients on my plate!
Oyshi Sushi is a cute little restaurant and a decent find for my area. We were fascinated by the laminated placards that adorned the place, signed 8.5″ x 11″ papers by the NHL and NBA players who would have come across the restaurant on their walk between the ACC where they played and the Westin Harbourfront where I suspect the athletes are often put up. Prudently, there were not dates apparent with the autographs so athletes may only have visited once but they included the Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, Toronto Raptors, and Manitoba Moose. As a restaurant kid, it would be a highlight for a professional sports team to descend upon my establishment!
We gobbled down our sushi and got home to catch the second and third periods (by streaming) and Lil Sis was treated to four goal horns in a Leafs’ does-nothing-for-them win over Buffalo. Lil Sis thought the audio announcement of a Leafs goal was “neat.”
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